Andeleon
Andeleon was a 4th generation Tzimisce and a member of the Tal'mahe'Ra shortly after alliance between the Kindred and the Euthanatos was first formed. The True Black Hand believed that he was the first vampire to possess Vicissitude, which they believed to be a sentient, supernatural disease. Biography Originally, Andeleon was a pharmakos in Ancient Greece, who practiced human sacrifice to power his magic. The Eldest, envious of this art, Embraced Andeleon and made him his emissary to the protectors of Enoch. Around 500 BCE, Andeleon aided the True Black Hand in tapping the Guarded Rubrics. According to the Black Hand's legend, Andeleon picked up Vicissitude during an exploratory journey to the Deep Umbra. He had made numerous trips to the Deep Umbra previously alongside Euthanatos allies, but on one of his last trips he was attacked by a creature whose form was constantly changing. Unable to drive it off, Andeleon frenzied and bit the creature, absorbing Vicissitude when he swallowed the spirit's ichor. However, Andeleon did not show any signs of Vicissitude for several years, and other vampires who drank from him demonstrated the trademark shapeshifting powers before he did. The spread of Vicissitude concerned some members of the Black Hand, and their Thaumaturges claimed that it was a disease, specifically a sort of sentient, supernatural lifeform. They tracked the source of the infection back to Andeleon, who fled with his servants. He was eventually tracked down and burned, as were all Kindred travellers to the Deep Umbra, but not before almost the entire Tzimisce clan had developed Vicissitude. Other sources, drawing on the records of the Lich Yamadanda called the Leonatic Scroll, Andeleon set off to explore the Tempest with five companions to find the reflection of Eden within its depths. He reasoned that, if the First City could be find in the Underworld, than surely some remnant of Paradise would also be here. During his travels, he reached Stygia, Swar and eventually the Labyrinth. Within it, he found a forest that whispered with human voices inhabited by Spectres. Andeleon believed that this was D'hainu, the garden of Lilith. Other versions speak of the "roots of Mount Meru" or the starless end of the sky" After pressing forward, he reached the center of the forest. A court of thirteen thrones ringing a bottomless well awaited them, where Andeleon stepped to the well and whispered into its depths. In the cause of this, his form rippled, while another version claims that a shapeless creature came up the well and that Andeleon fed from it. Afterwards, he returned and mastered Vicissitude at an amazing speed, retreating back into the slums of the First City with his brood. When the Tal'mahe'ra came to investigate, they found only horrors wearing the faces of Andeleon's progeny and vessels, with no trace of the Methuselah itself. Trivia *The Black Hand explained that Vicissitude was a vampiric development of the same source that creates the Magus Nephandi and the once human Fomori. *The concept of Vicissitude as an alien parasitic disease - along with the background of Andeleon - has been edited out of the Classic World of Darkness by later editions, and is considered optional. References *Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, p. 28-29, 31 * -110 Category:Tzimisce Category:Fourth Generation vampires